Stay Close To This First-Person Horror

With the cancellation of Silent Hills, and the hype built by its teaser demo P.T, some developers are trying to fill the void for fans of horror. Two such developers are Aleksandar Dzhordzhiyevski and Maxime Thomas, working on first-person horror Stay Close, which aims to blur the line between madness and reality, and was recently Greenlit.

In Stay Close, players travel through different phases, based on reality and illusion; only by progressing through each of these can they find the truth of what they are seeing. Aleksandar, the creator of the game’s concept, said that “Stay Close is strongly inspired by the movie Jacob’s Ladder,” a 90s horror film that featured a man who appeared to be slowly losing his mind, unable to tell what was real and what was spewed forth by his damaged imagination.

Aleksandar’s goal “would be to achieve a similar atmosphere…. Mixing reality with madness.” There is also a functional (and thrifty) reason behind this decision: By having two phases, reality and illusion, the developers can “use the same level and assets twice, resulting in 50% less content and almost 30% less development.”

Similar to the teaser demo of P.T, or upcoming horrors of a similar focus – such as Allison Road – gamers aren’t spoon-fed the answers or the narrative behind the game, and have to piece together what they believe is happening based on the information that they find. Just what is hiding in the game is not yet clear, as the game is still early in development, but the developers want the mystery to be an important part of the experience.

For those planning to keep Stay Close on their radar, more information can be found on the game’s website, Steam page, Facebook and Twitter.